Daily Prep Episode 308: 5 Free Permaculture Videos

For today’s “Best of Web Monday”, I wanted to share 5 free permaculture videos with you (along with their PDF downloads!).

“Permaculture”, for those who haven’t heard of it, is essentially the discipline of using passive landscape technologies to achieve maximum productivity. In particular, permaculture design seeks to control the flow of water across your land to quite literally change the area’s microclimate.

I think a lot of preppers may have heard the word “permaculture” before, but dismissed it as being some fluffy, green, tree-hugging, leftist, agenda 21 initiative. While it may have some appeal to these types of people, don’t be mistaken–permaculture is about growing food.

Why Permaculture Matters to Preppers

To put it simply, “permaculture” is to land what “off-grid” is to houses. It’s being able to get the most output from your land, for the least amount of active input. It’s designing land to take advantage of every natural resource, so that it essentially manages itself and you don’t have to.

For the prepper, this means: more fruit and veggies, aquaponic systems that produce large quantities of fish, chickens, livestock, water running to your house, and a million other good things–all happening “naturally” (i.e. because you’ve designed them to happen that way).

Geoff Lawton, one of the top experts on permaculture in the world, recently put out this 5-part series of free permaculture videos, exposing people to just a handful of the many interesting facets of the discipline. As a bonus, each video also has a free PDF download, that goes into greater detail of the video’s topic.

Surviving the Coming Crises-presents a broad overview of permaculture, and takes a look at some interesting case studies where permaculture principles have been used to achieve some amazing things (including one example of some desert land in Jordan that was made productive in just a few months!)

Permaculture Property Checklist-goes through a checklist of items to look for when considering a property for purchase. Things like solar exposure, slope, altitude, latitude, proximity to the ocean or major lake, etc. Shows case studies of properties being evaluated for purchase, covers ideal locations for building structures and more.

Urban Permaculture: The Micro Space-takes an in depth look at the yard of one of Geoff’s student’s who is getting some amazing abundance from his 640 square foot space! Growing over 30 varieties of fruit trees, tons of veggies, berries and more. Doing it all pest free, and on a small scale in the middle of Melbourne, Australia.

5 Acre Abundance on a Budget-this video takes a look at one of Geoff’s former properties that he designed on a budget, and got some amazing results from. On a budget of roughly $17,000, he added a series of dams and 7 water features. He got some incredible abundance, and was able to significantly increase the value of the property for resale.

Absolute Abundance-is a whiteboard video where Geoff breaks down the multitude of permaculture “tools” at our disposal. He sketches out a diagram of the potential slope on a property and shows where there are opportunities to be had. Good review of what is discussed in the other 4 videos.

The first time I saw these videos, I sat down and watched them all in one sitting! And it was time well spent.

Learning how to design your land to work for you has an incredibly high “ROI.” This knowledge can help you increase the production of your land–no matter what the size.

To get access to these permaculture videos, simply enter your name and email. Geoff does offer paid courses (some of which are roughly $1000), but you don’t need to sign up for one of these classes in order to get these videos.

Any of you guys doing permaculture design on your own property? Let me know how it’s coming in the comments!